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Wednesday, 28 December 2016

CPR News' Don DeBar locked out of Facebook

Don
Debar, who hosts CPR Radio and often appears on RT or Press TV is one
of those voices I trust and regard as a reliable commentator.

Just
before Christmas, after a visit to Cuba, he was shut out of his
Facebook account on the grounds of "suspicious activity".
As he refused to comply with their demands 10 days later he is still
excluded.

Don
DeBar is a highly-respected broadcast journalist and a courageous
leader and former candidate for the Green Party. As Senior
Producer at Community Public Radio CPR News (CPR), he has taken a
strong stand against U.S. imperialism and is an outspoken advocate
for social justice of every kind. In 2010, he was among more
than 100 activists and journalists from a variety of organizations,
religious groups and media outlets who attended a New York gathering
with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the face of an
incendiary media campaign that tried to silence them.

Don
DeBar.

Now,
the so-called “fake news” hysteria is again ushering in a new
McCarthyism, with calls for silencing free political speech and for
shutting down access to alternative news sites. Following a
recent trip to Havana, Mr. DeBar was locked out of his Facebook
account based upon allegations of “suspicious activity.” He
has been informed that the only way to reinstate his account is to
provide Facebook with sensitive documentation. We will not
allow him to be silenced.

Jill
Stein’s Recount debacle has gone out with a whimper — no recounts
in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and Trump actually gaining 162 votes in
Wisconsin. But the media campaign to delegitimize Trump’s
presidency — if not to actually overturn it — screeches on.
Amid rising hysteria over Russian hacking already at fever pitch,
part 2 of this interview with Don DeBar (see here for part
1)
continues with his remarks on the past election and the political
terrain that is starting to take shape.

Reflecting
on the early days of the latest Presidential election season, we
recall that the narrative being pushed by the mainstream press could
be summed up by one word — Dynasty. Before a single primary
vote had been cast, the Beltway had smugly predicted a contest
between the Bush and Clinton dynasties. No need to dredge up
messy issues like the gutting of the American economy or question the
premises of the endless Global War On Terror.

Under
“Bush vs. Clinton: the Sequel,” Jeb and Hillary would spar
over how to best maintain U.S. Imperialist hegemony and corporate
rule, and how far the nation could go in tolerating a secular world
view of the LBGQT community and women’s rights vs. the Christian
Right’s scorched earth campaigns to crush gay rights and abolish
abortion. But as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men
…

Two
candidates emerged to spectacularly muck up the Beltway’s best laid
plans. Coming from ostensibly opposite ends of the political
spectrum, both were hitting a very similar raw nerve for the cheering
tens of thousands who were filling their rallies, who knew something
was very wrong, and that the American Dream had morphed into the
American Nightmare.

As
Trump’s momentum proved inexorable, and Sanders grudgingly got on
board the Hillary Express, the Beltway game plan shifted. The
Hillary camp needed to finish off those Sanders followers who had
booed Bernie’s calls to get in line. Then they could move
sharply to the right, and isolate the radical upstart Trump
(Hillary’s opponent of choice). The end-game would be a
center-right, unitary Reich that could rule for a
(demographically-insured) thousand years with the Democrats setting
the pace for war and austerity. Didn’t work out that way, or
as Snidely Whiplash put it, “Curses, foiled again!”

Kamikaze
Democrats.

Trump
upset that apple-cart in November and his stubborn unwillingness to
play along with the demonization of Putin and Russia has large
segments of the ruling elite in a panic. So in a desperate bid
to overthrow his electoral victory they’re attacking Trump through
recounts (failed), or pressuring the Electoral College to go rogue
through the “Russian-hacking” frenzy. If these Kamikaze
Democrats couldn’t keep Trump out of the White House, they might at
least leave him politically crippled.

How
this all plays out remains to be seen. But left out of these
scenarios are the American people, who are in the midst of a
developing “working class uprising,” and whose voices may yet be
heard. In Part 2 of this interview, Don DeBar explores the
under-currents that both the Beltway Establishment and the so-called
Left Establishment have ignored to all our peril.......